Introduction to Data Donation

Workshop TU Ilmenau 2026

Session 2️⃣: Data Donation Studies (Participant Perspective)

👉 Part of the SPP DFG Project Integrating Data Donations in Survey Infrastructure

Agenda

  1. What are data donation studies?

  2. Participant perspective, including

    📢 Task 1: Inspect your DDPs

    📢 Task 2: Try donating your data

Image by Hope House Press via Unsplash

1) What are data donation studies?

image of lupe

Source: Image by Markus Winkler via Unsplash

Please raise your hand ✋ if you…

1) knew about this right?

2) ever tried to request your data?

🤔

In Switzerland, only 8% of members of an online access panel did (Pfiffner & Friemel, 2023, p. 17)

What are data donation studies?

Definition 💡: Data donation studies are a user-centric, privacy-by-design method for collecting digital traces:

  • Users have the right to request, access, and download data that platforms collect about them.
  • They can make their data packages (DDPs) available to science via data donation tools (DDTs), often in the context of surveys.
  • Researchers use CSS methods to filter, anonymize, and aggregate this data locally on participants’ devices.
  • Participants can inspect/delete their data before any data is transferred.

Which types of data do DDPs contain?

For platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube, for example… (Hase et al., 2024)

  • User profiles (e.g., privacy settings)
  • Activities (e.g., friends, likes, searches, exposure, analog movements)
  • Content and context (e.g., ads watched, algorithmically inferred interests)

Summary: What are data donation studies? 📚

  • Summary: User-centric method for collecting digital traces: Users download their data packages (DDPs) from platforms and make them available to science via data donation tools (DDTs).

  • Further literature:

    • Boeschoten et al. (2022)
    • Carrière et al. (2024)

2) Participant perspective

image of lupe

Source: Image by Markus Winkler via Unsplash

Data donation studies - participant perspective

process of data donation study

Figure. Data donation study - participant perspective

Step I: Data request

process of data donation study

Figure. Data donation study - participant perspective

Step I: Data request

process of data donation study

Figure. Data donation study - participant perspective

Step I: Data request

process of data donation study

Figure. Data donation study - participant perspective

How easy (or hard) did you find it to request your data? Did you encounter any obstacles? 🤔

Step I: Data request

Different degrees in standardization for data requests (Hase et al., 2024)…

  • Verification procedure
  • Specification of data (metrics, observation period)
  • Notification on provision of DDP
  • Duration of DDP availability

Step II: Download

process of data donation study

Figure. Data donation study - participant perspective

Step II: Download

process of data donation study

Figure. Data donation study - participant perspective

📢 Task 1: Inspect your DDPs.

  1. Which variables can you identify?
  2. How could you use these for research in your field?
  3. What are questions you may have about these measurements?

Feel free to work in groups of 2-3 people (around 15 minutes)

Step II: Download

Different degrees in standardization for DDP content (Hase et al., 2024)…

Documentation & changes over time

  • What does each file “mean”?
  • How was this data measured?

Completeness & scope

  • Is data missing and, if so, why?
  • Why are some data points limited to specific time frames?
  • How do we handle multi-lingual DDPs?

Step II: Download

Problems in Data Donation studies

Valkenburg et al. (2025). It is time to ensure research access to platform data

Step III: Data donation

process of data donation study

Figure. Data donation study - participant perspective

Step III: Data donation

process of data donation study

Figure. Data donation study - participant perspective

Step III: Data donation

process of data donation study

Figure. Data donation study - participant perspective

Step III: Data donation

process of data donation study

Figure. Data donation study - participant perspective

📢 Task 2: Try donating your data.

Upload and inspect your data. If you could not download the data, use the ZIP folder “example data” (see landing page) for this session.

  1. Are there any surprising/missing values?
  2. Did you encounter any difficulties in deleting/sharing your data?

Use this link: https://next.eyra.co/a/nWPJC4?p=999 - replace number after p= with random number. Feel free to work in groups of 2-3 people.

Bias in Data Donation Studies

Similar to tracking studies, data donation characterized by (Hase et al., 2024; Hase & Haim, 2024; Keusch et al., 2024):

  • Errors in representation (e.g., coverage error, non-response error)
  • Measurement errors (e.g., missing data, specification error)

👉 Not necessarily less biased than survey data - but subject to different bias?

👉 We will talk about this in Session 4️⃣.

Summary: Participant perspective 📚

  • Summary: Key steps from the participant perspective …

    1. Data request
    2. Data download
    3. Data donation

  • Further literature:

    • Boeschoten et al. (2022)
    • Carrière et al. (2024)

Questions? 🤔

References

Introduction to Data Donation - TU Ilmenau - Valerie Hase

Boeschoten, L., Mendrik, A., Van Der Veen, E., Vloothuis, J., Hu, H., Voorvaart, R., & Oberski, D. L. (2022). Privacy-preserving local analysis of digital trace data: A proof-of-concept. Patterns, 3(3), 100444. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.patter.2022.100444
Carrière, T. C., Boeschoten, L., Struminskaya, B., Janssen, H. L., De Schipper, N. C., & Araujo, T. (2024). Best practices for studies using digital data donation. Quality & Quantity. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-024-01983-x
Groot Kormelink, T., Houwing, F., Struminskaya, B., Boeschoten, L., Schipper, N. de, & Welbers, K. (2025). Meaningful informed consent? How participants experience and understand data donation. Information, Communication & Society, 0(0), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2025.2540915
Hase, V., Ausloos, J., Boeschoten, L., Pfiffner, N., Janssen, H., Araujo, T., Carrière, T., De Vreese, C., Haßler, J., Loecherbach, F., Kmetty, Z., Möller, J., Ohme, J., Schmidbauer, E., Struminskaya, B., Trilling, D., Welbers, K., & Haim, M. (2024). Fulfilling Data Access Obligations: How Could (and Should) Platforms Facilitate Data Donation Studies? Internet Policy Review, 13(3). https://doi.org/10.14763/2024.3.1793
Hase, V., & Haim, M. (2024). Can We Get Rid of Bias? Mitigating Systematic Error in Data Donation Studies through Survey Design Strategies. Computational Communication Research, 6(2), 1. https://doi.org/10.5117/CCR2024.2.2.HASE
Keusch, F., Pankowska, P. K., Cernat, A., & Bach, R. L. (2024). Do You Have Two Minutes to Talk about Your Data? Willingness to Participate and Nonparticipation Bias in Facebook Data Donation. Field Methods, 36(4), 279–293. https://doi.org/10.1177/1525822X231225907
Kreuter, F., Haas, G.-C., Keusch, F., Bähr, S., & Trappmann, M. (2020). Collecting Survey and Smartphone Sensor Data With an App: Opportunities and Challenges Around Privacy and Informed Consent. Social Science Computer Review, 38(5), 533–549. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894439318816389
Pfiffner, N., & Friemel, Thomas. N. (2023). Leveraging Data Donations for Communication Research: Exploring Drivers Behind the Willingness to Donate. Communication Methods and Measures, 17(3), 227–249. https://doi.org/10.1080/19312458.2023.2176474